Rights groups are criticizing South Africa’s government for failing to prevent what they call a “massacre” at the ...

A map of a gold mine in Buffelsfontein, South Africa: Illegal mining is common in parts of gold-rich South Africa where companies close down mines that are no longer profitable, leaving groups of ...

A team of 402 illegal miners became trapped in the depths of Buffelsfontein Gold Mine in South Africa but only 324 of them emerged when they were pulled out. Seventy-eight of them met a grim fate ...

An abandoned gold mine, where miners were rescued from below ground, in Stilfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. Credit: AP/Themba Hadebe The Buffelsfontein Gold Mine, the scene of the ...

Efforts to bring miners to the surface were hampered by the complex structure of Buffelsfontein, one of South Africa's deepest mines, with workers scattered across different levels and shafts.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP ... vast majority who came out of the Buffelsfontein mine were from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Lesotho, and were in South Africa illegally. Police said they seized ...